Overview

Artstor is collaborating with Art on File to share approximately 18,000 images of contemporary architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, and public art in the Digital Library. In 2006, Art on File's archive, produced by photographers Colleen Chartier and Rob Wilkinson, began to be made available through the Digital Library. Chartier and Wilkinson have photographed 20th and 21st century architecture and landscape architecture projects around the world, in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Examples of contemporary public art, historic public sculpture, urban design, and historic preservation from a wide range of sites are also included. As part of this collaboration, Artstor agreed to sponsor photographic campaigns to add new direct-digital content to both resources.

Buenos Aires

Art on File has documented the contemporary and historic buildings and landscape architecture of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Two areas of focus will be the Puerto Madero Waterfront district located along the Rio de la Plata and the Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve, a former resort area that is now home to hundreds of species of birds and other wildlife. In addition to historic buildings, Puerto Madero features Santiago Calatrava's Puente de la Mujer, Philippe Starck's Faena Hotel + Universe, Rafael Viñoly's Fortabat Art Collection, and Cesar Pelli's Repsol-YPF corporate tower. Art on File will also document the National Post Office, Recoleta Cemetery, University of Buenos Aires Law School, Catedral Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, and Galerías Pacífico, as well as the city's architecturally rich neighborhoods of San Telmo, La Boca, Palermo, Retiro, and Belgrano.

MEXICO CITY

Artstor Digital Library and Art on File are collaborating to release approximately 1,200 new direct-digital capture photographs of architecture, built environment projects, and landscape architecture in Mexico City. The focus will be to capture the most recent developments in the architectural evolution of the city, as well as modernist buildings, UNESCO world heritage sites, iconic murals, historic parks, monuments, and colonial edifices.

ISTANBUL

Art on File photographed the built environment of Istanbul, Turkey. In particular, the campaign focused on contemporary developments in architecture and recent works by prize-winning Turkish architects. Historic projects were also documented to capture Turkey's position between ancient and contemporary, east and west. Some of the notable buildings and sites documented include Istanbul's ancient city walls; Santralistanbul Contemporary Art Museum, located in the restored and converted Silahtaraga Power Plant, the Ottoman Empire's first urban power plant, originally constructed in 1911; the Sakirin Mosque of 2009 by Hüsrev Tayla and Zeynep Fadillioglu, which serves as an entrance to the 700 year-old Karacaahmet Cemetery; and the Istanbul Museum and Social History Center, designed by Mehmet Konuralp, situated in the former Imperial Mint, among many other structures, parks, and notable sites.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

In their campaign in the United Arab Emirates, Chartier and Wilkinson focused on the cities of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Dubai is the site of many recent large-scale construction projects, including the Burj Khalifa (Skidmore, Owings and Merrell), which was completed in January 2010 and is the world's tallest building at 2,717 ft. They also photographed the Meydan Racecourse (TAK architects), the longest building in the world; the Burj Al Arab (Tom Wright of W. S. Atkins PLC), a hotel constructed on an artificial island; the Dubai Marina (Emaar Properties), a man-made marina district; and the Rose Tower (Khatib & Alami Group), the world's tallest building used exclusively as a hotel. In Abu Dhabi, Chartier and Wilkinson photographed projects such as the Sheikh Zayed Mosque (Yousef Abdelki, architect, Halcrow Group, engineers); The Yas Hotel (Asymptote Architects); the Capital Gate (RMJM Architects); and Ferrari World (Benoy Architects).

UNITED STATES, GERMANY AND ENGLAND

On a subsequent campaign, Chartier and Wilkinson continued to photograph sites in the United States, focusing on the architecture Los Angeles, CA and Chicago, IL. They also travelled to Berlin, Germany and London, United Kingdom, producing new photography for works by gmp von Gerkan, Marg und Partner, Ulrich Wolff and Helge Pitz, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind, Foster + Partners, Alsop Architects, Richard Rogers Partnership, and Wilkinson Eyre, among others.

UNITED STATES

For the initial 2006 campaign, Chartier and Wilkinson travelled throughout the Western and Midwestern United States, photographing sites in Arizona, California, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. They documented works by architects such as Shigeru Ban, Santiago Calatrava, Arthur Erickson, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Herzog and de Meuron, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Meier, Rafael Moneo, Morphosis, and Cesar Pelli. In Portland, OR, Chartier and Wilkinson photographed examples of the city's urban design and its comprehensive public transportation system, including streetcar, light rail, commuter rail, and urban tram systems.

ROTTEDAM

Artstor Digital Library and Art on File are collaborating to release approximately 1,200 new direct-digital capture photographs of architecture, built environment projects, and landscape architecture in Rotterdam, the Netherlands' architectural capital. The second-largest city in the country, Rotterdam offers an impressive overview of modern architecture from the last 100 years.

Art on File was founded in 1983 by photographers Colleen Chartier and Rob Wilkinson. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chartier and Wilkinson have expanded Art on File to better serve the educational community by sharing examples of public sector design with students and faculty. In so doing, Art on File has become a primary supplier of images to libraries and visual resources collections that support teaching programs in contemporary architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and public art. Art on File images have appeared in design magazines, text books, and newspaper journals worldwide.

Collection information

* Image totals should be regarded as an approximation until a given collection is 100% complete. Users should also bear in mind that the number of images
available to them may vary from country to country, reflecting Artstor’s approach to addressing an international copyright landscape that itself varies from
country to country.